Moving Subjects: Screening the Migration Crisis

The Arrivals /// Les Arrivants Patrice Chagnard & Claudine Bories France /// 2009 /// 111 min /// in French with English subtitles ----------------------------------------------- Arriving on the shores of France is merely the beginning of a labyrinthian journey for more than 50,000 refugees seeking asylum through the municipal reception center in Paris each year. Cultures collide as refugees from the Congo, Chechnya, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia meet with well-intentioned but overwhelmed European social workers. Asylum seekers hoping to leave behind a life filled with war and famine, persecution and poverty find themselves forced to comply with a bureaucratic logic that resembles another kind of torment, and their social workers, faced with dwindling reserves of options and patience, are at risk of collapsing under the sheer number of new applicants. The film investigates CAFDA, the municipal reception centre for asylum-seeking families, by following the daily life of the asylum seekers and simultaneously exposes the persecution, political oppression and human misery outside Europe.

GUEST: Attila Szabó (Menedék Hungarian Association for Migrants) Attila provided community and individual social work for detained migrants in the detention centre of Nyírbátor between 2011-13. In 2013-15, he helped recognized refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, facilitating their integration. Since June 2015, he is legal adviser for the Menedék Hungarian Association for Migrants.

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